Posts Tagged ‘ratings’

About 10 minutes after the ratings for “The Sound of Music Live!” rumbled in, I (and no doubt a lot of others) immediately thought “Peter Pan.” Not because that musical is the equal of the Von Trapps’ tale, but because it combined a family-friendly story with the sort of daredevil flying stunts that reliably lure... Read more

As interest in the aftermath of the Ferguson shooting case ruling continued on Tuesday, CNN scored a rare ratings feat by winning every hour of the day in the key news demo. Nielsen estimates that CNN’s coverage of the protests to denounce a Grand Jury decision not to indict Ferguson, Missouri, police officer Darren Wilson... Read more

As usual, Viacom is doomed. People have been preaching the End of Days for the company since Tom Freston left and was replaced by Philippe Dauman in 2006, and yet it still trundles along, making quite a bit of money despite myriad objections to its programming decisions, its executive appointments and its advertising strategy (Spike, at one point, was airing a 38-minute hour). Union: Manny Hernandez/Getty Images; Minaj: Jason Laveris/Filmmagic Not only does none of this matter, but the conventional wisdom presents an incredible opportunity for investors, according to Michael Nathanson of r esearch firm MoffettNathanson. "For the third time in less than seven years, Viacom is again beset by collapsing ratings ... negative advertising ... and a free fall in its relative valuation," Nathanson wrote in a report. "Historically, this sequence of events has given contrarian and patient investors a ‘fat-pitch’ way to make money." None of this is to say that Viacom (or, indeed, cable TV) is doing well—PUT levels fell dramatically in the third quarter of this year, both across the board and particularly seriously at Viacom’s networks, with demo declines, too, at MTV (which is off by a full 25 percent) and Nick (off by 20). Those two are the company’s bread and butter, and they’ve tended to rely disproportionately on individual franchises. In Nick’s case, it simply had an amazing third quarter last year—the network ranked No. 1 not just in the demo but in total viewers—and in MTV’s case, it was the Teen Mom franchise that tanked. (The network went through much the same thing when Jersey Shore got canceled.) All of this makes the network appear volatile. But the truth is that it manages to pull in disproportionate numbers of viewers in a demo that is fast abandoning television with buzzy series; the model looks more like a win-some-lose-some film studio strategy than a television network, especially with the largely unsung Comedy Central (which recently had three consecutive quarters of monster growth—33.8 percent up in Q3 of last year alone). This week’s earnings report from the company should prove interesting. Dauman had to field questions about the weak ad market last quarter; this time he’s pretty much certain to get grief about low ratings. But Nathanson observes that Viacom isn’t merely experiencing speed bumps like PUT and ad revenue declines—it’s at the vanguard of an industry that is going to have to cope with those problems en masse. Viacom is also fighting with small cable operators, who are simply dropping its package in an effort to keep costs down as carriage agreement renewals rear their heads, but you can bet the company’s strategies on this front are being analyzed carefully by all of its competitors. AMC Networks, A+E Networks and Scripps are all in a similar boat. Either Viacom will figure out an effective strategy or it will consolidate until it’s part of an entity big enough to get its way

The final two games of the World Series — including Wednesday’s clincher, which scored especially big ratings — lifted Fox to its second straight weekly victory in young adults, while ABC claimed the frame’s top two rookies in young adults. ABC has had a good start to the season, even if lacks NFL games that... Read more

Fox knew that its fall season was going to be awful—it’s now very clear why Kevin Reilly stepped down as Fox entertainment chairman just weeks after May upfronts—but the network can't have known it would be downright cataclysmic. Four out of its five new series have already tanked: the network finally canceled its $50 million reality series Utopia on Sunday after the show pulled a miniscule 0.5 18-49 rating, and newbies Gracepoint and Red Band Society aren’t fairing much better—production on Mulaney is reportedly shut down. So

It is the middle of the fall, when the leaves turn brown and die, as so do the sitcoms. This has been a notably bad year for new broadcast TV—multiple networks are watching all but one of their new series decompose rapidly while legacy shows hemorrhage viewers to the perpetual menaces of cable, video games, online content and *shudder* talking to family members . Below we've broken down where each network stands. Oh, and we're not going to do a full analysis of The CW, but both their new shows, Flash and Jane the Virgin, are A) fun and B) doing great. So hooray for them. Arrow is also getting some recognition for being good, so it'll be interesting to see if anything happens to that show's ratings as its enters mainstream (read: media) consciousness for the first time. Also, all the ratings below are live viewers in the 18-49 demographic.

This year’s World Series matchup between the San Francisco Giants and Kansas City Royals didn’t generate much heat early, but audiences tuned in to the winner-take-all Game 7 on Wednesday, as Fox dominated the ratings race with some of its best non-NFL numbers in recent years. In Nielsen’s metered-market overnights, the San Francisco Giants’ 3-2... Read more

A month into its sixth season, “The Wendy Williams Show” hit a series high last week highlighting a syndication frame that also saw several new shows continue to perform well. “Williams,” distributed by Debmar-Mercury, rose 13% week to week to hit a 1.8 household rating for the first time (equating to about 2.33 million viewers),... Read more

The overall network ratings picture hasn’t changed much in the early going this season, as NBC last week made it four straight primetime victories in adults 18-49 while CBS remained top dog in total viewers for a fourth straight time. According to same-night Nielsen estimates for the week of Oct. 13-19, NBC’s “Sunday Night Football” reclaimed... Read more

If a TV series is placed in a terrible time slot and no one is around to watch it, does it make a noise in the ratings? Of course not, which is the conundrum of network TV scheduling: every show, no matter how good or bad, is ultimately at the mercy of its time slot, especially when it’s put one of the spots that routinely repels audiences. As CBS Entertainment Chairman Nina Tassler explained to me recently, “You get into the room with a bunch of options, and it is moving pieces around on the chessboard.” Except that on TV, some of the chessboard squares are more like black holes, where series after series quickly disappear without a trace. One ABC time slot was so toxic that it took down three shows last season, and that radioactivity can linger for years. Those scorched earth time slots are once again wreaking havoc on new shows this fall. While two long-doomed spots seem to be safe for viewers again—the Mysteries of Laura has reclaimed Wednesdays at 8 p.m. for NBC, while a relocated Grey’s Anatomy has brought audiences back to ABC on Thursdays at 8 p.m.—others have already slid into television’s equivalent of death row. Here are the 10 worst timeslots on broadcast television. Abandon hope, all ye who are scheduled here:

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Talk NYC/WW is your daily download of the tech, marketing and advertising news you need to know. It’s smartly curated to keep you up to speed on the innovators and innovations that are shaking up the digital world today.